A Musical Life: Ryan McGinnis

Ryan McGinnis is a North Carolinian transplanted to Wichita, where he leads The McGinnis Project. The band will release its album, Big Night Sky, later this year.

Listen

Listening...

/

2:47

“I had taken a long hiatus from music and you can really do that. Music pulls you back.

We’re not gentle singer-songwriters. Don’t come expecting gentle background music to sip wine by. Right before we play we’re always talking to each other. We turn up the PA and say, ‘This is a rock show!’ Even though we’re not a rock band, we bring the energy and the intensity you would expect.

Songwriting is such an abstract thing for me. I think a lot of my stuff comes from real-world experience. I might take something that happened in real life and then take artistic license with it and abstract a little bit. I think relationships and I think real life and stuff like that is really what connects with people. It might just take a concept or a thought or a moment and just be like, ‘Wow, this is cool! How can I weave this into a song?’”